[[!meta date="2018-06-15T13:20:57.150574"]]
[[!meta author="Tyler Cipriani"]]
[[!meta copyright="""
Copyright &copy; 2018 Tyler Cipriani
"""]]
[[!meta title="I Drank a 4-Year-Old Pumpkin Saison"]]

It wasn't what I would call a great experience.

![[Small](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/eb/c94cd14b97ffbfe90dcbb913f9ee7b/small.jpg) |
[Medium](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/eb/c94cd14b97ffbfe90dcbb913f9ee7b/medium.jpg) |
[Large](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/eb/c94cd14b97ffbfe90dcbb913f9ee7b/large.jpg) |
[Xlarge](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/eb/c94cd14b97ffbfe90dcbb913f9ee7b/xlarge.jpg) |
[Original](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/eb/c94cd14b97ffbfe90dcbb913f9ee7b/large.jpg)](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/eb/c94cd14b97ffbfe90dcbb913f9ee7b/large.jpg "4-year-old pumpkin beer tasting setup")

## The Saison Gauntlet

I recently [threw down the saison brew-off
gauntlet](https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/8q5dno/bar_keepers_friend_is_magic/e0gnv8s/)
---I blame the internet.

The person against whom I am brewing (who happens to have the same last name as
myself and, arguably, a better username on reddit) is someone who seems to have,
at least, actively thought about saison (and [brewed
one](http://brulosophy.com/2017/11/30/short-shoddy-saison/)!) within the last 4
years. This places me at a disadvantage.

I never enter the French and Belgian beer category: it's way competitive! It's
typically got as many entries as IPA, and the number of variations of the
saison style alone is completely staggering to me. I've always felt I have
basically zero chance of winning in that category. As a result I've never tried
to fine-tune a recipe.

## But I _have made_ saison...right?

Right‽ No---I'm sure of it. I've read
the [_Farmhouse
Ales_](https://www.brewerspublications.com/products/farmhouse-ales-culture-and-craftmanship-in-the-belgian-tradition)
book. I do have a [[recipe|brewing/saison]] for saison, but from the looks of
it I may have made it to brew at someone else's house. Looking back through my
notes from the past 2.5 years: *nothing*. Looking at my [BeerAlchemy
Backup](https://tylercipriani.com/beer_alchemy/index.html) (which I used on my
iPhone 3 years ago)---success! I have a [recipe with
notes](http://tylercipriani.com/beer_alchemy/313C95D0-035B-4788-8692-0A7730DAD81E/Pumpkin%20Saison-2014-09-28.htm)! ...for a **PUMPKIN** saison.

## Pumpkin beers

The things I don't brew for competition are few. Brewing a pumpkin beer with
[my partner](https://blazeyandtyler.com) for Halloween has been a tradition
we've had for many years. Even though neither of us are particularly pumpkin
beer lovers, we do love [Halloween](https://blazeyandtyler.com/wiki/Halloween)
(we got 229 trick-or-treaters last year!). Usually we view the pumpkin beer as an
opportunity to do something strange. Last year we did a pumpkin and molasses
kettle sour with 50% wheat. And, evidently, in 2014 we brewed a pumpkin saison.

Then I remembered: we bottled some of this, didn't we?

![Why, yes, that does say "Brewed Oct. 2014"
[Small](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/d3/0a1337d12e8b0656c538a28f53a32e/small.jpg) |
[Medium](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/d3/0a1337d12e8b0656c538a28f53a32e/medium.jpg) |
[Large](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/d3/0a1337d12e8b0656c538a28f53a32e/large.jpg) |
[Xlarge](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/d3/0a1337d12e8b0656c538a28f53a32e/xlarge.jpg) |
[Original](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/d3/0a1337d12e8b0656c538a28f53a32e/large.jpg)](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/d3/0a1337d12e8b0656c538a28f53a32e/large.jpg "Why, yes, that does say 'Brewed Oct. 2014'")

## Tasting notes

Here are some quotes from the notes I took during the tasting:

* "tastes like applesauce and old cloves"
* "slightly chemical old spice"
* "kind of like pfeffernusse"
* "tastes like Hobby Lobby smells in the fall"

It was pretty bad. It was oxidized, it had low carbonation, and the only
flavor that was still strong, really, was the pumpkin spice.

On the plus side:

![It had a nice color
[Small](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/75/41c1f9256c70348927a74bab5d8cb0/small.jpg) |
[Medium](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/75/41c1f9256c70348927a74bab5d8cb0/medium.jpg) |
[Large](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/75/41c1f9256c70348927a74bab5d8cb0/large.jpg) |
[Xlarge](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/75/41c1f9256c70348927a74bab5d8cb0/xlarge.jpg) |
[Original](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/75/41c1f9256c70348927a74bab5d8cb0/large.jpg)](https://photos.tylercipriani.com/thumbs/75/41c1f9256c70348927a74bab5d8cb0/large.jpg "Nice color")

## What did I learn?

I learned beers where the predominate character is spice don't age well. I've
learned that the color that I got from my recipe is pretty good (I'm guessing
it's a bit darker than it would have been fresh). And most importantly I've
learned that I have a deep need to have a third thing in paragraphs like this
one.

Basically I've got bupkis---no saison recipe, no revelations about my bottling
technique, no newly gained confidence in my innate brewing ability---but at
least I got to drink a gross beer.
